Rethinking the Resistance Against Boxed Curriculum

Rethinking the Resistance Against Boxed Curriculum

Tom Loud, Educator in Blount County, Tennessee                               
Katie McGhee, Educator in Sullivan County, Tennessee           

 

           
             We’ve been spinning our wheels. According to NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) data, reading proficiency of 17 year olds increased only by one point between 1971-2008. One point in 37 years! In 2009, the Common Core State Standards, one of the most promising educational reforms in history, were implemented in the majority of states, in an effort to create a robust, rigorous, and relevant set of standards. Yet in terms of academic achievement, the results have been anything but historical. When compared to 2009, the math and reading scores of twelfth graders in 2015 dropped a point nationally. The standards alone (which the large majority of teachers support) are just part of the puzzle, with an equal piece of the puzzle being found through instructional materials. And not just any instructional materials, but materials and textbooks of quality! Although the latest national and recent state standards have been a step in the right direction, the teachers who are responsible for implementing the standards have been left to search for and create a curriculum with supporting materials.

According to the report, How Teachers Judge the Quality of Instructional Materials, when selecting instructional materials, grammatical errors and visual appeal (cuteness) top the list. The report continues by stating when teachers are vetting materials, they begin with no rubric or criteria, and use their own judgement. The majority of these teachers stated they have had no guidance from their districts or schools in judging quality materials, as high teacher autonomy allows today’s teachers to rely on their professional judgement. The result has been misalignment and shallow instruction, as teachers have been presented with the challenge of creating a curriculum from scratch with limited training, support, and expertise.

In the report, Choosing Blindly, Matthew M. Chingos and Grover J. Whitehurst suggest that “Choice of instructional materials can have an impact as large as, or larger than, the impact of teacher quality. The analogous supporting tools for teachers are instructional materials.” High quality materials increase teacher knowledge and skill while increasing the level and complexity of the content students are asked to learn. But how can teachers be sure selected materials are aligned? Educators can lean on third party reviews such as EdReports.org, an independent nonprofit that reviews k-12 instructional materials for quality. Rubrics and program comparisons provide educators with valuable information in selecting quality materials.

Currently, teachers are spending countless hours sourcing or creating materials. According to the 2017 Tennessee Educator Survey, teachers in Tennessee report spending an average of 4.5 hours per week creating and sourcing materials for their reading blocks alone. This does not even account for teacher planning time in addition to gathering materials! McDougald & Weisskirk assert that, “Freeing up teachers’ schedules by providing high-quality curriculum allows them to allocate time toward activities with far higher value.”   

Students are also given the benefit “of a coherent, cumulative, cross-curricular experience.” Gosse and Hansel assert in their article, Taken for Granted, that when educators take the content of curriculum for granted, “they lose the opportunity to collaborate.” Students may be learning something of value in each course or grade, but are the things they are learning each year building upon previous years for a greater, cohesive education? Gosse and Hansel go on to say that “There is no more direct connection to student achievement...than what students have been taught. While it is possible to find a struggling school with a great curriculum, finding a good school with a weak curriculum is about as likely as finding a human being who can live without oxygen.”

Boxed curricula and textbooks have recently become frowned upon by many teachers. But a return to instructional materials created by experts and vetted for quality is necessary in our classrooms. Teachers know their students, they know where they are, and they know how to deliver instruction. When teachers have access to high-quality instructional materials, they are able to best do what they have been called to do: teach children. - To provide all students with access to deep content and rigorous material, regardless of the students' experiences outside the classroom. High quality materials level the playing field for all students, giving every child an opportunity for success and every teacher the opportunity to provide them with that.

The promise of the latest standards will only be seen with high quality materials that are aligned with those standards. A report from Lift Education showed that when observing ELA lessons in Tennessee, up to 79% of lessons were unaligned to state standards. The result of this is a limited return on teaching, in comparison to the great effort and heart teachers are putting into their instruction each and every day. When these observed districts were provided with guidance and support, later observations found that 86% of these classrooms had become fully aligned, as strong instructional materials became an essential tool used to drive the teaching and learning of all lessons. We agree with Cory Epler in that, “We have a responsibility to ensure that all students have equitable access to the education necessary to achieve their full potential. A key aspect of this is that all students receive strong standards-aligned instruction.”

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR NEXT STEPS

1. Local districts need to provide their teachers with high quality instructional materials, rather than instructing them to give their best effort to “teach to the standards.” Teachers do not need to spend hours per week searching and pulling materials that align to the standards they are teaching. Instead, teachers’ time needs to be invested in what matters most...teaching and supporting students!

 2. At the district and school level, educators need to be offered professional development on how to select quality materials as a way for them to be able to “critique their curriculum” as suggested by Cathy Whitehead, Tennessee's 2016 Teacher of the Year.

3. States need to determine what instructional materials and curricula are leading to the greatest levels of achievement among all student groups, and provide a list of these materials for districts to select from when selecting purchasing options.

ENDNOTES

 Brown Center on Education Policy at Brookings,  “Choosing Blindly” Apr. 2012

Early Literacy Implementation Work Annual Report. LIFT Education, Sept. 2017, lifteducationtn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/LIFT-Education-Annual-Report-2017_FINAL.pdf.

Educator Insights. Tennessee Department of Education, 2017.

Gosse, Carolyn, and Lisa Hansel. “Taken for Granted: Why Curriculum Content Is Like Oxygen.” 2014.

How Teachers Judge the Quality of Instructional Materials. WEST Ed, Mar. 2017.

McDougald, Victoria, and Lauren Weisskirk. “Want All Students to Learn? Make Sure Their Teachers Get Great Content for Their Classrooms.” Sept. 2017.

Parents are Partners: Hosting a Family Event

          Research has shown that, "The most accurate predictors of student achievement in school are not family income or social status, but the extent to which the family creates a home environment that encourages learning, communicates high yet reasonable expectations for the child's achievement, and becomes involved in the child's education at school." Parental involvement activities not only help promote student achievement, but they also empower parents with tools and confidence to support their children's educations.

          Any time schools can bring families in, magic can happen! Parents feel a part of the education team for their children, they glean ideas and actionable strategies, families learn together, and students ultimately benefit. Our school recently hosted a family literacy night, a two-hour event where families of students of all ages from our school rotated through several carefully chosen activity stations. We learned several things along the way.

1. Establish and Maintain Your Goals
When we began the initial planning process for our event, we had two very clear goals: keep literacy at the center of each activity and provide families with actionable, real-world ways to promote their children's literacy at home. These goals seem simple and easy to follow through, but it can be surprising how easy it is to stray from your goals when planning a family event. There is a plethora of ideas at our fingertips online and elsewhere, and ideas can quickly grow too broad without specific goal-setting and conversations. We very much wanted our event to be a fun, great experience for our families, but we also had to work hard to make sure that each activity had a clear purpose with literacy at the center, beyond just family fun. Magic happens when the fun and learning come together!

2.  Plan, Plan, and Plan Some More
Building a strong planning team was one of the greatest reasons our event was successful. Teachers from various grade levels and subject areas, administrators, our librarian, and our speech-language pathologist met several times to discuss and plan our event. Every detail had to be considered, from logistical pieces such as the direction of the activity rotations through the school, to materials lists, to collecting survey data, to dividing up the groups, etc. A strong planning team is an asset because several minds considering things and bringing ideas opens up the possibilities and ensures no detail is overlooked.

3. Think Outside the Box
Events like this are great opportunities to get creative! While keeping with our two goals, we worked hard to provide activities that were engaging and, perhaps, different than what our families may have expected as "literacy" activities. We had one activity station centered solely on skill-building games families can play at home. The games ranged from phonics builders, to responding to reading, to story elements, to sight words, and more! Another activity was a reading response science connection with animal adaptations. Families of older students loved "Speed Dating" a book, where they learned how to pick a just-right book for their child. They enjoyed learning about easily accessible online resources that can be used outside the classroom. One of the family-favorite activities was a math-literacy connection where students read a recipe, sequenced the steps, and then followed the directions to create either cookie dough or pudding play dough. The conversations were amazing! One parent thought the recipe was a little dry and added extra water, causing the play dough to not form correctly. A tiny first grade voice popped up, "Mom, see why it's so important to read carefully? We didn't follow directions." Parents remarked all throughout the night how nice it was to see a connection to other subject areas, and that this may help their reluctant readers. As educators, we know the connection between literacy and other subject areas, but we have to be cautious to not simply assume our families know the same.

 

4. Utilize Your Resources
Most events require supplies, and in turn, require money. This is where we had to get creative! We asked local businesses to donate to our cause, local bookstores donated books and supplies, and restaurants contributed gift certificates for prizes. But resources are not confined to supplies and money. Some of the best resources are people. Our local librarian came for a session with families to share the resources and activities our library has to offer, and she walked them through registering for a library card.  Our speech-language pathologist shared developmental milestones with parents of our younger students, and she talked of the speech-language connection. And the fantastic ideas from the diverse people on our team were absolutely invaluable!

5. Promote, Communicate, and Build Excitement
In order for a family event to accomplish its goals, people have to attend! Parents need to know why attending an event at school on a weeknight is worth their time and attendance! We built initial excitement for the event with a flyer sent home, then sent invitations with an RSVP portion, promoted our event on social media, sent out school messenger telephone messages, and worked to build excitement among our students in our classrooms. Many adults in attendance made comments such as, "Not coming wasn't an option. Our son would have never let it go." The best comments though, were the ones such as, "I'm so glad we came. I have learned so much."

6. Reflect
A huge part of hosting a successful event is thinking ahead of ways to improve. What went well? What could be done differently? Our Family Literacy Night went very well, but we know there are ways we can make it better next time. Can specific logistics be tweaked to make things run more smoothly? Can certain activities be improved? We have parent surveys and planning team surveys for analysis, notes were made along the way, and planning team discussion. No event is ever perfect, but constant reflection during and after the event helps to make it the very best event possible for your school!


It is important to view parents as partners in our work. When we work to empower parents with the tools, strategies, and confidence to support their children's educations, most families welcome it with open arms. View parents as teammates in educating the children in our classrooms, and work together toward that goal. As stated so well by Hendeson and Berla, "The more comprehensive and well-planned the partnership between school and home, the higher student achievement."